Baiji Refinery to Reopen in 3 Months

It will take an estimated three months to restart the giant Baiji refinery, after government troops re-took the facility from Islamic State fighters earlier this week.

Bloomberg quotes an engineer at the plant as saying that workers have fled to other provinces, refinery units need maintenance, and militants still control part of the pipeline network.

Colonel Khalaf al-Jabouri, a member of Iraq’s anti-terror forces, told the news agency:

“We will secure the pipeline network that feeds oil to the refinery … The Iraqi forces are now seeking to clear the path where the pipelines pass through to pump the oil to Baiji and also to export the crude to Turkey.”